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Kevin Landis: We manage a publicly-traded venture capital fund called , which has traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SVVC since 2011. It's organized as a closed-end fund. The fund is primarily invested in late-stage private companies where we see strong opportunity for a potential public offering or an acquisition to give us a profitable, exit opportunity.

Wally Forbes: So these are not directly available to the public?

Landis: We invest in a mixture of public and private companies. But the key to SVVC is that it allows individuals to invest in pre-IPO companies -- companies that are emerging growth opportunities -- a little bit earlier than if you had to wait until they are on the public market.

Forbes: This is very interesting. But when you get to specific recommendations, please include ones that people can buy publicly.

Landis: To give you some examples, we've been fortunate to invest in four companies while they were still private that have since had successful IPOs. Successful in that they were profitable for us. (NYSE: TWTR) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) are two.

By the way we've nearly doubled our money in each of those. In addition, we have owned (NASDAQ: SCTY) and (NYSE: YELP), which are also quite well-known, though a little less famous than the other two.

Forbes: Well, I think everybody would like to hear what tomorrow's Twitter or Facebook are.

Landis: That's right. We believe some of the companies sitting in our portfolio today are likely to be nice, big winners when they go public, and that's a good feeling. But we also run some of the more conventional, open-end mutual funds that invest in stocks that are already public.

We have a tech fund called Firsthand Technology Opportunities Fund. That fund has a ticker symbol of TEFQX. It launched in 1999. We've got a good collection of public companies there that give us exposure to the emerging opportunities and trends and tech. We're looking for places where the public market is simply underestimating the potential for growth in those companies.

Forbes: That sounds very interesting.

Landis: For example, in that fund we were able to buy Facebook even cheaper than the IPO. So what's funny there is that on a percentage basis, we've actually made more money in the Technology Opportunities Fund. It's a smaller position, but we made a greater percentage return on that one than on our Facebook position in the Firsthand Technology Value Fund. Tripled from its low. So in one fund, it's doubled; and then in the other, it's tripled.

Forbes: Not all bad.

Landis: But in either fund, we're looking for opportunities that we think are going to be transformative in the way things are done. And that's how you really open up great, big and new markets.

Forbes: Maybe you can get into a few stocks that you think are good opportunities at this point and that are public companies.

Landis: Absolutely. So let me give you some examples of trends and then companies within those trends that we really like. So, for example, in alternative energy, we've invested in SolarCity and SunRun. These are companies that invest in residential and commercial solar installations. They don't manufacture the solar panels. They purchase their solar panels, and they sell the electricity that comes off of them.

As already mentioned, SolarCity is traded under the ticker SCTY. SunRun is still private. The public stocks have done terrific this year. People have finally figured out that solar panels are really, really, really cheap, so you have to figure out who the winners are. The companies that have adapted to that new reality are doing quite well.